Nowhere and Back Again
by Raurenkili
Summary: A Secret Santa gift for Rose of Doom 199. (Prompt: Write about Christmas in Erebor, with or without RP characters.) Merry Christmas, Rosie!


**_Nowhere and back again_**

It was a few months after the Battle of Five armies had been won, and Thorin's Company had survived with barely a scratch to speak of.

The dwarves from the Iron Hills came down to help with the rebuilding of Erebor, and gladly offered their food and supplies to their friends.

And on top of all that, Thorin was freed from the dragon sickness, and invited Bard and the people of Laketown to stay with them in the Mountain for the winter.

Erebor had begun to feel more like its old self, and the company was settling into a happy routine of working side-by-side.

That is, until winter really set in, and some of them began to think about leaving for their own homes before the weather got bad.

And here we find Bilbo Baggins, swinging his short legs off the side of a stone bench, with the few belongings that had survived the journey neatly packed away in a satchel beside him.

Those who planned to return home with him were making their final preparations to leave. Bilbo, however, had been packed for days.

It wasn't that he was eager to go, which sounded ridiculous now, considering all his pining for his armchair, and warm hearth, and kettle on the stove. It was that by preparing ahead of time, he thought he might better come to terms with leaving.

But it didn't help. It only made things worse. The more he prepared, the more he thought about leaving, and the more he thought about leaving, the more he dreaded it.

After all, they had armchairs and kettles here! Not that it was quite the same, but it would do.

Somehow he felt that if he tried hard enough, he could make it feel like home. Ponoa, Fenn, Bombur, Lavinia - they could do wonders with the food that was brought from the Iron Hills. They had family, laughter, light, and all the basic comforts of home. So why did he have to leave?

Suddenly, Gandalf showed up in the doorway.

"It's time to go, the others are ready."

Bilbo hesitated.

"Come, we must hurry if we are to beat the snows coming out of the north. We've stayed here too long as it is."

Bilbo dragged himself off the bench and picked up his satchel, then begrudgingly followed the wizard out of the door.

Nyx, a female Ranger, and Lavinia, a Hobbit woman and close friend from home were making the return journey with them.

The next thing he knew they were on their mounts, plodding west. He had always pictured this day with such excitement and now every step was taking him farther away from where he wanted to be. This seemed like such a huge mistake.

They swayed back and forth to the gradual rhythm of their steeds' gait. Riding was so easy for him now, and yet so monotone. Lavinia had tried to cheer him up by saying something about how exciting it was to finally be heading home, but he had barely heard it. He had barely heard the shouts of "goodbye," "farewell," "safe travels," and "Mahal speed your journey."

He wanted to speed right back and hug them all, and apologize for not saying goodbye when he had the chance. But it was too late now.

Why were they saying 'goodbye' so happily? Did they really want him to go? Didn't they want him to stay? Something seemed so off about the whole thing, so wrong, so unresolved.

When they had started out, the sky was clear. But now it had turned grey, and it was beginning to snow. At first, only a few feathers swirling in the wind. But then heavy, wet flakes that quickly covered everything.

They continued on for a ways, hoping that the snowfall would let up, but it didn't. In fact, it did exactly the opposite, becoming thicker and starting to come down faster, and at an angle so that the wind drove it into their eyes, blinding them and penetrating even their warmest layers of clothing.

Soon it was difficult - no, almost impossible to see anything through the blizzard. Their progress slowed, and the white snow piled up against the legs of the three ponies and two horses.

Very soon, the ponies were up to their flanks in it, practically swimming in an endless sea of white. Lavinia's pony began to struggle in the back; it was the shortest and couldn't get much further in the deepening snow. It was clear that they had to turn around, camping would be no use. Nothing could be seen now, and it was likely that they would miss their mark in the snow, even should they reach it at this rate.

"We have to go back!" Gandalf called over the loud wind, and everyone agreed right away. Bilbo would have been relieved, or even happy, if he wasn't so cold.

It didn't take too long to get back, but it felt like forever in the shivering cold. They were surprised that they didn't miss Erebor in the blizzard, the snow had quickly covered all their tracks, but they were very glad that they didn't. When they got there again, there was much rejoicing that they didn't get lost in the snow, and blankets and warms hugs and hot drinks were given all around. The wind blew and the snow fell into drifts outside, but inside the mountain everyone was safe and warm.

Suddenly, Bilbo got a novel idea. Right before they had left, he had been upset about the winter holiday which they celebrated in the Shire. It was called Yule, and he and Lavinia would have had to make the best one possible out on the road, but now, they were back in Erebor! He hadn't bothered to mention it before because it wouldn't have mattered, but now it did. He sat up so straight and so quickly that Lavinia noticed right away. He immediately whispered his idea into her ear and they danced around in a circle together for joy. Then they ran off to find Thorin.

"Thorin!" Bilbo called as soon as they spotted him: when they reached him they skidded to a halt on the stone. "I mean, er- your majesty…-ness." He added.

Thorin smiled and laughed at their antics. "What's your hurry?" He asked them, "and you can drop the title, both of you, I'm your friend."

Bilbo caught his breath, nodded, and then exclaimed, "I've had the most wonderful idea! We _must_ call a meeting!"

"Oh yes, yes!" chimed in Lavinia.

"Slow down you two," the King laughed, "I have to know what it is first."

"Well," said Bilbo, trying to think of how to word it, "back home, in the Shire, we celebrate a holiday called Yule. Today is the day that it falls on this year, I never mentioned it before because I thought we would be gone by then, but since it _is_ today, and we're all here, I figured that we could teach you and your people some of the traditions! It won't be exactly like it, of course, but I daresay we'll make it as homelike as possible."

"Oh, please say yes!" Said Lavinia excitedly.

Thorin laughed again. "Alright, you make a convincing case, and I don't see what could go wrong."

After that he called together the original members of the company, (the other three humans had stayed with the people of Laketown), and spread the word to leaders like Dain and Bard.

After a while the two Hobbits had quite a gathering of people sitting in a circle around them, and they animatedly described the customs and traditions of their favourite holiday.

They sent different groups of people off on different quests, to find rare ingredients for special dishes, or to find supplies to make ornaments and decorations. Most of the objectives he sent them on missions to complete involved food, and so the dwarves rather happily complied.

The more foreign ones like cutting down a tree were not as gladly accepted and had to be carried out with a good deal of force. For this, he sent out the strongest of the dwarves he could think of right into the blizzard, Dain and Dwalin. He of course had forgotten to specify what _kind_ of tree, and was rather upset when they came back with the wrong one. He was sure to send them right back out, ignoring their grumbling.

The cooks among them were in charge of making the seasonal dishes, which didn't turn out _quite_ the same, given that they were made only based on the descriptions of the two Hobbits, and Raepay (a dwarf woman) was in charge of the drinks, which explains why they mostly consisted of alcohol.

The decorations ended up looking a little strange, even under careful inspection, and they had to utilize Kili's scarf collection to decorate most of the tree because it was so large.

They made wreaths to hang on all the stone doors which looked rather lovely, and Bilbo and Lavinia did their best to teach them what songs they could remember, but the dwarves were not satisfied and made up their own. It was rather fortunate, too, for they misunderstood the words "sleighing song" to be "slaying song" and took it to mean that they were all about killing Orcs and then partying afterward.

The partying aspect in general was not too hard for them to grasp.

They were in the middle of one of these songs that the Dwarves claimed fit the occasion perfectly, and while it was pretty, that wasn't entirely true, they were all gathered around the tree by the fireside in the great hall, when all of a sudden the music stopped and all eyes turned.

A crash sounded and a blast of cold air blew into the room. Suddenly, Fili and Kili broke out of the crowd and ran toward the noise. "Mother!" they cried excitedly as they hugged a snow-covered Dis. Over their shoulders, Bilbo saw Dis mouth "thank you" to Thorin. Soon she and the people she led were swarmed by the rest of them.

Many questions were asked, but it turned out that when she got word that Erebor had been reclaimed, she led some of the relatives of the company and some dwarf-men to help with the work, but the messenger she sent ahead of them had gotten lost somewhere. They had gotten caught in the snows, but had made it through just in time for the celebration.

Bilbo was incredulous. "But ma'am," he asked, "how-ever did you make it through the blizzard?"

Dis gave him an equally incredulous look, for I daresay she wasn't expecting to see a Hobbit in Erebor.

"Are you crazy? We're Dwarves! We make it through everything."

Fili and Kili nodded as they stood by their mother, eyes twinkling. As the newly come Dwarves were welcomed in and taken care of, some others started up the song again.

Beaming, Lavinia turned to Bilbo. "You know, I think this is the best Yule we've ever had."

 ** _The End_**

 _Now go slay some Orcs and sing about it._


End file.
